ChipsAway Bans Sale Of Business On eBay

Chipsaway, the car dent repairer, has banned one of its franchisees from selling his concession on eBay, and rewritten its rulebook so it can never happen again.The company acted after The Daily Telegraph revealed franchisee John Hopkins was trying to sell his membership on the internet auction site.

The company, which offers a door-to-door service for repairing scratches and minor dents in cars, has rewritten the contract for all its franchisees specifically banning them from selling their businesses this way.

Mr Hopkins, from Cornwall, had started the bidding at just 99p, but eventually found a buyer in Berkshire willing to pay Â£3,600.

However, ChipsAway said it would not allow the contract to be transferred to the buyer.

ChipsAway’s chairman, Roger Wild, said: “I am sure in its own way eBay is a great dealer, but I just don’t believe that it’s the best medium to market complex products such as these.

“We got a lot of negative responses from franchisees who felt it wasn’t the correct medium for promoting a complex business. Simply by using eBay and starting the auction at a low price devalues our business.”

The memo sent to all franchisees earlier this month by Steve Bignell, managing director of the company, which started in the UK in 1994, is similarly unequivocal, calling the sale through eBay “wholly inappropriate”.